*: All videos are higher res than will fit in these embeds without going full screen, so don't be afraid to crank those bad mothers up!

: You're late... You're way late, Francois Hawke! You haven't forgotten that we're going to visit Ms. Takao, have you? Hurry up and get over to Yoyogi Park. You're wasting my quality time!

>It's from your classmate. Enter his name.

*: Eh, good enough.

: Oh yeah, you better make sure you look nice for her. How about the jacket you bought the other day... Y'know, the one with a demon graphic on it? You're just the mood maker. Don't forget that.

That's typical Isamu right there, calling me to tell me I'm late, then telling me what to wear. But I let it slide one more time, even if only because it's gonna be spectacular to see his face when Ms. Takao strikes him down in one blow.

*: As for the jacket with a demon graphic...

That's right: Shin Megami Tensei games are canonically part of the Shin Megami Tensei universe.

Anyway, just to make him wait even longer, I'm gonna have a drink.

>You see a vending machine! You have enough change to buy a drink. Will you buy something?

Does Atlus make the raddest games?

>The drink that came out isn't any of the ones listed. You obtained a Mysterious Drink.>The vending machine is sold out.

Well, hmm, okay then. It must be one of those special prize cans that you get for getting to the bottom of a vending machine, and that's definitely not some BS I made up just now. I'll, uh, drink it later.

: No, but it's the same general direction from here.: After the incident, we've had a lot of lookee-loos, but not so many customers. Man, I've had a lot of free time on my hands...: That's weird, I thought this place would be packed. What's going on exactly?

: I had a long night and woke up like half an hour ago, if you don't count the nap I took in the train. Seriously, what's the haps?: Hmmm... How should I put this? Yesterday, there was a riot at Yoyogi Park. If you want the details, you can check the giant screen. A buncha people were killed. You could hear the sirens wailing all night long.: Holy crap, it sounds pretty bad. I guess I should pay more attention to the news... but I know I'm not gonna.: I'm sorry about that... I shouldn't be talking on the job, even if I'm not busy.: Eh, no sweat, I'm wasting time on purpose anyway. How's the wife?

He gives me a look. Alright then, better get a move on. This empty station is beginning to give me the heebie-jeebies anyway.

*: Well, isn't this both familiar and new at the same time! We're the little blue token, as usual. The green ones are NPCs with a few lines, but no portrait.

Interestingly, the green tokens are turning back and forth, while our blue one is rotating counter-clockwise. In ages past this would mean we're Chaos-aligned while everyone else is Neutral... but the Law/Chaos alignement axis is no longer a Thing. So it's probably just a visual distinction or something.

If we take a good look at Yoyogi Park, there's a big square construction site in the middle, and it's kind of not supposed to be there. Hmm! Let's check out the western entrance before we talk to anyone else.

Oh, hmm, alright then. Let's get our chat on, then.

Young officer: We ask for your cooperation.

Shabby man: It's a dream where da world becomes round...: You don't say.Shabby man: By gum! I means ter say... Da world IS round, but it got round-er, ya see!?: Still not seeing it, sorry.Shabby man: I think it's a prophetic dream, but no one believes me... By gum!

Reporter: I feel that the demonstrators' actions were out of line... But, even I can't forgive Cybers Communication for destroying the park for their own profits!>The reporter's impassionned speech continues.

So, ecoterrorism then? I don't know if I'd start a riot about that sort of thing myself, but I have to admit it's kind of an eyesore already.

Young man: Oh, you mean that thing they're showing on TV?: Why, was there more than one big riot that ended up with a bunch of dead people yesterday?Young man: It doesn't seem real to me! I feel like this riot happened in another world or something... Well, I don't really have anything to do with it anyway.: Right, good call, let's keep our heads down.

: Why hel-lo.High school girl: You said you were going to visit Ms. Takao today, right?: I don't remember telling anyone. But clearly Isamu couldn't keep quiet.High school girl: Just because she's beautiful, don't go doing weird things to her, okay!?: Wait, do I have a reputation for doing weird things to beautiful women? ...hey, come back!

She's gone. Aw, man, what.

Ah, here's that good old jumbotron. Lessee...

>The news is showing on the giant video display...

Newscaster: The demonstration got out of hand, and there have been several deaths and injuries reported. Also, Hikawa, the top executive of Cybers Communication, is still missing.

*: During my first test run, I encountered this and immediately thought, "oh sweet, a SMT1 reference!"

Then my brain clicked, and I thought "holy crap! it's not a reference to SMT1, it's a reference to my Let's Play of SMT1, where I consciously refused to use the widely-accepted canon names and chose to name my party members after Akira characters!"

Then my brain clicked again, and I got creeped out, and I decided to think about something else very quickly.

>The news continues...

Ugly high school girl: ...Don'tcha think that Hikawa guy's cool?Even uglier high school girl: As if! He's got all those bad rumors about him floating around!Ugly high school girl: Oh, gawd! That's what makes him so cool!

*: I didn't make up those names, that's what the game calls them. Yikes.

Woman: Did you hear about the riot?! Three people died, right??? Eeek! I'm so scared!!Man: You're such a scaredy-cat! C'mon, baby, every night we start our own 'riot of love'!Woman: You're such a pervert! But, I love that about you!! *giggle*

Oh Lordy, get me outta here.

: Man, I hear you. So tragic to see all these abuses of punctuation.Police officer: There were even fatalities, yet it's like a carnival here.: Wait, what? Someone died of exclamation mark overdose?Police officer: Just a while back, a long-haired man walked in.: Oh, you were talking about... Oh! Oh.

Oh.

Young man: He had a giant sword on his back, and looked dangerous! But, I swear I've seen him somewhere before... Hmmm...: From that description, it could be anyone.

: Why are you telling me? Do you think I'm holding?Old man: The hospital up ahead hasn't been open for a while. What's goin' on?: I... okay, that is strange.

I hope they still allow visitors, or this'll have been a huge waste of time.

Tourist girl: What's up with everyone here? Everyone's so dang crabby, even after the riot!: I have to assume dead protestors will have that effect, yes.Tourist girl: By the way... Do you wanna have a good time with me???: Yes, but not as much as I'm looking forward to seeing the exact moment when my friend's heart shatters into a million pieces. Sorry!

: I'm loitering, basically.High school boy: ...Did you hear the rumor about Yoyogi Park?: News, yes, but rumors, no. Whatchagot?High school boy: I heard, on the night of the riot, a demon was spotted at Yoyogi Park. It was a terrible demon that killed all those people!: That's crazy. You're crazy.High school boy: Well... it's just a rumor.

Man: I won't be able to get a single picture of the scene... Just my luck.

*: Well hey, if it isn't Definitely Not Johnny Depp!

: I figured I'd come have a look like everyone else. Can we see anything from here?

: "The clash between a well-known company and a civic organization results in deaths"...

: ...that it was a struggle between two opposing cults.

*: Man, the subtle body language is amazing here. I don't remember it showing so clearly on the old CRT TV I had back then.

>Your cell phone started to ring.

: ...Huh? Isn't that your phone ringing?

: Oh, hello!Classmate: *sigh* I finally got a hold of you. What have you been doing all this time?

>Please enter your classmate's name.

*: Also good enough.

: I could see if it was Isamu, but you're never late. Did something happen?: Not really, sorry, I'm just making a grim tourist of myself.: Where are you now?: In Yoyogi Park, near where those riots occured.: Yoyogi Park? Well, since you didn't show up on time, Isamu and I left without you. ...We're almost there. So yeah, I'm sorry, but can you come directly to the hospital?: Yeah, sure, sounds like a plan.: You know which hospital it is?: The one in Shinjuku, right?: ...Yeah, Shinjuku Medical Center. Just go east from Shinjuku Station, and you can't miss it.

*: It's easy to miss, but the man is slightly startled and turns his head towards us at the mention of Shinjuku Medical Center. Dude has great hearing.

: I know the place, I think I saw it a minute ago.: Oh well.

: Huh, you have a much better reason to go than Isamu does. I'll be right there, don't worry.: Thanks, I'm not planning on staying there long. Okay then, see you later.: Later!>Chiaki hung up.

: Aren't you the curious type?: ......That's where I'm headed, too. What a coincidence.

: Eh wot?: You don't know what happened here, right?: Not really, no.: Then, you probably don't know what kind of place that hospital is, either. The report on the Gaea cult and the Scripture of Miroku... It's an interesting read.>You obtained an issue of Ayakashi Monthly.

: That place is different. ...Heheh. False info is pretty common in the occult industry. If it does turn out to be wrong, just laugh it off, okay?: I definitely will.: Well, I'd better get going. My name's Hijiri. If we ever meet again, let me know what you thought about my article.

And he leaves. I'm tempted to start reading, but if I'm going to see the place with my own eyes, why bother? Let's get a move on.

And there's the hospital. Two entrances, eh?

"The entrance to the annex is closed. Please use the entrance to the main building."

Huh, I have to assume that old man back there can't read. Let's use the other way in, then.

Nicer than I expected, for an evil occult demon hospital.

: I really wasn't that far, it's like two blocks.

*: Note the concerned eyebrows. Dang!

: From what I hear, it gets stranger.

: Look, even the reception desk is empty. Isn't it creepy here? I don't like it...: Yeah, it's, uh, got an atmosphere.

: He hasn't come back yet, though. He'd better not be off fooling around.

: I met a reporter at the park, and he gave it to me.: You got it from a stranger? Come on, you should know better than that.: He had some candy too, but I already ate it.

: What!? It's an occult magazine! Why would you bring something like THAT here!?: It was that or littering!: ...... Well, I guess it might help me kill some time.

: Eh, might as well.: If we can't find Ms. Takao, then I don't wanna stay here another minute. He should be on the second floor, where the patients' rooms are. I'll wait here. ...Oh yeah, let me borrow this magazine.: Sure. Heck, keep it, my treat.: Thanks!

Ah, there's an elevator just at the end of the lobby. How conveniently hospital-like.

*: The hospital is largely empty, and most of the doors are locked and barred. We might as well go straight to the second floor.

The place really is barren. It's not outright frightening, but it's abnormal for sure.

*: This part of the building is roughly U-shaped; as we enter the eastern wing, we catch a glimpse of someone on the west side. Curiously enough, if we had gone west first, we'd be seeing someone on the east side. You literally cannot get it right the first time.

We have a good view of the parking lot from here. As a nice touch, cars of various colors randomly pass on the street back there. And notably, there is exactly one car parked here. (That is actually a neat detail but I'm not at liberty to mention why yet.)

In any case, let's check out the west side.

Well, there's Isamu alright. I'd know that belt buckle anywhere.

: Normally I'd say it was for fun, but considering how this place feels, that'd be a dick move.: You come here late, you cause trouble... Geez.: I'm pretty sure you're just jumpy. I know I am.: Ah, forget it.

: Oh well.: I know the value of a good "oh well", but in these circumstances it feels a mite flippant.: I'll go back and see how Chiaki is doing. She's probably all mad at me 'cuz I've been gone so long... *sigh* It's hard to please a girl with her upbringing.: Ha, like I've ever seen you try.: See ya in a bit, Francois. I really hope that this is nothing we should be worried about...

It's about time he left, the tacky rays coming from that belt buckle are overwhelming.

*: We take the stairs back down, just because.

At least Chiaki is still where I've left her.

: Don't look too excited!: Um, Francois... You know that special report at the beginning of the magazine? Well, it says some things that are a little disturbing.

: Nice bunch of fellas, once you get to know them.*: Shush!: They're right here in Japan. Anyway, they believe in this book of prophecy called the Scripture of Miroku.

: and these people are actually trying to make that happen. The reporter was unable to learn what is meant by "chaos"... It could be worldwide terrorism or some other tragedy. But...

: I even checked the men's room.: If that's your idea of trying to please well-bred ladies, I can see why you think it's so hard.

: We're in the middle of a conversation, so please save the details for later. Now, where were we? ...Oh yeah, read this part. "A hospital on the east side of Shinjuku is closely linked to their plan..."

: You know, this could be the hospital that they're referring to.

: Things like they experiment on patients, and how a psychic got scared and ran outta here... There was also one about the hospital being under the influence of some cult...

: I haven't heard those things before. Maybe we shouldn't have come...

: There's definitely something wrong with this hospital.

: I'm worried about Ms. Takao.: Yeah, this whole cult business is sounding less ridiculous every second.: Hey, let's look around some more. If we don't find anything, then at least we'll know that there's nothing bad here.: Aight, good idea.: It looks like you can access the annex from the second floor. I'll go take a look.

>You obtained an ID Card.

: ...You're not scared, are you?: O-Of course not! I'm sure she's not down there, that's why I'm having Francois go!: What time is it?*: Dude, it's been over four years, no one knows what you're talking about anymore. Can we just get through the intro without any more interruptions from the peanut gallery? Please?: ...Right.: All Francois needs to do is confirm that Ms. Takao isn't in the basement. It's my duty to see her in person. If something does happen, Francois, just run like hell! Alright?: Yyyyeah, I'll do that.: *sigh* I can't believe him sometimes. But now, I'm worried about Ms. Takao. We should make sure she's okay.

*: And we have control again.

The basement, eh? Can't be much spookier than the rest of the place. It's just, like, there's no windows, right? No biggie.

On one hand, it would have been nice to run into Ms. Takao down here already. On the other hand, considering the general environment, it's kind of a relief that there's nobody at all.

Let's wander in an operation room. What's the worst that could happen? Someone might even come in to yell at me and I'd have the chance to ask one half of one question in the three seconds it'd take for them to kick me out.

Okay, I'm beginning to think there might be something to those cult rumors.

Yeah, that's not cranberry juice. Holy crap, could this be Ms. Takao's...? I gotta keep looking.

Here's Room A02 this time.

>Will you enter the room?

I'm going to regret this.

WHAT the SHIT just HAPPENED.

Was that a demon? Was that the demon who killed the protestors yesterday?

Rooftop. Rooftop. Elevator, then rooftop.

*: One car in the parking lot. I presume either Hikawa and Yuko came here together, or Hikawa came in alone some time ago and Yuko just arrived.

No, wait, no, that's not productive. I can worry about everyone else once I'm done worrying about myself. This isn't the rooftop anymore. Where am I?

So it's got those tables with the raised edges, and drawers set in the walls. This can't be a...

Okay so it is a morgue. Great.

I don't feel dead.

That bug thing hurt like a son of a bitch when it... when it got in. But now, I feel like I'm the opposite of dead.

Is this what it feels like to be a demon?

*: Yeah, basically. A very, very weak demon, but a demon nonetheless.

Lv1 Fiend Francois HawkeAn enigma wrapped inside a mystery. That, or a high school student completely out his depth. It's hard to tell. Extraordinarily low HP, even lower MP, and he knows no skills. If it wasn't for his equipment stat bonuses, displayed as green bars, all his stats would be a glorious 2. Needless to say, you probably should trade him away for a better ally as soon as you can. About his only good aspect is that he's not particularly vulnerable to any type of damage, though a good 90% of the creatures in the game can one-shot him at will. Hopefully none of those are in this hospital.

Fiends are a new neutral-aligned race for the series. Given the circumstances of Francois', um, rebirth, you might be tempted to think of them as Choujin, human/demon fusions, but it's more complicated than that. In the original Japanese, fiends are called "Majin", which roughly means "devil" or "demon person" and tells us nothing new so I don't know why I brought it up. But we'll find out. We'll find out.

*: Speaking of equipment bonuses, there are no weapons or armor in this game, or none that matter to us in any way. But we are somehow able to swap out the strange demonic insect parasite thing we've been infested with. Or we could if we had more than one.

Meet Marogareh the Magatama, the charming little be-mandibled bastard we've been so graciously given by those generous strangers. It's not exactly the strongest of its kind, but it has no specific elemental weaknesses (or resistances), has tiny if well-rounded stat bonuses, and will start teaching us physical attack skills as soon as we start leveling up. If we live long enough to level up, that is.

We know that next up is the fairly basic "Lunge", and there will be five more skills afterwards. They all have level requirements before they unlock, though.

Interestingly enough, the status screen calls us by our full name, but the main menu is well content to call us by our nickname instead.

As much as I'd like to stay here forever and admire my sweet new tats, I'd really rather not spend more time in this room, or this building, than I strictly have to. And getting a move on might keep me from thinking about who the hell stripped me and carried me to the morgue.

Hello, what's this?

: I tend to stare at ghosts. I'm sorry, it's a bad habit.: Am I that peculiar? Have you been living all your demon life in a cave?: For all intents and purposes, yes.

This door is at the end of the corridor where we met Hikawa before. So the exit should be the other way.

And that was Hikawa's room. Probably still is. Hmm.

*: We enter it automatically.

: Fancy meeting you here!

: Yeah, that sounds like me. I'm glad you can tell.

: Man, I have no idea.: ...I see. Well, at least you still think like a human...

: I took a quick look around, and it looks like I'm in a hospital... Since you're here too, does that mean this is Shinjuku Medical Center?: Yeah, it is. I've come here before.: ...Anyways. As much as I want to know what's going on out there, I don't think it's safe for me to walk around.

: I'm not sure what you're talking about.

: My guess is that they're... demons.: Oh, uh. Can't say that I have, no.: My strange experience... your new look... and these weird creatures... I don't think the police will be able to help us here.: Not the regular police, anyway.: Damn... I might have to seriously consider the possibility. It's hard to believe, but... If this is Shinjuku Medical Center, then I can't just rule it out.: The Conception.: The Conception... could have occured for real.

: If my memory serves me right, it belongs to a man named Hikawa.: Yeah, it does. He was... looking into it. Before.: He must have something to do with all this.

: Couldn't agree more.: If you're strong enough to fight those demons, then will you gather information for me?: Well, I was going to gather information for myself anyway. Given the circumstances, we might as well share.: I tried talking to what looked like a ghost, but I didn't have much luck. What's happened to the world...? Are there other humans out there...? We can only learn the answers to these questions by finding somebody else. ...I wish I could do it myself, but I don't think I'd last very long against these demons. Besides, I'd like to spend some time studying this object. I'm counting on you.: Sure thing, no pressure.

*: And here's our save point. This is essentially a Terminal equivalent, if slightly more limited. And we can still chat Hijiri up.

: Don't worry about me. I know I'll only slow you down if I go with you. ...Hey, I don't plan on dying here, you know. That's why I'm checking this thing out. ...So, go.

*: Yeah, Hijiri's not quite the badass normal we've come to expect from our human allies in the rest of the series. No non-demon party members for you!

When we leave...

: Maybe you should try and get out of this hospital. ...Good luck.

*: The A01 operation room we went in before is now labeled "Healing Room".

This is a fixed encounter; kind of a tutorial, really. It didn't reveal any of the wrinkles of the combat system, but we'll get to those soon enough. And we did gain a level for our trouble. I put our one stat point into Vitality because it doesn't matter how many allies capable of reviving us we have: if Francois hits 0 HP, it's game over.

In addition, Marogareh had a bit of a fit. Whenever you level up, you may or may not get the option of allowing your "equipped" Magatama to surge with a mysterious energy. This can have beneficial or detrimental effects, chosen randomly from a set unique to each Magatama. You can get fully healed, or receive permanent stat bonuses, or you can have various status ailments inflicted on you, that sort of thing. Fortunately the weaker Magatama tend not to screw you over too badly, and I think Marogareh in fact can't do you any harm at all.

Foul Will o' WispWill o' Wisps are small flames that appear to float over the ground of forests, swamps and the occasional graveyard. They're a very real, well-documented phenomenon that results from the interaction of gases produced by the decay of organic material, but before Science figured them out, people were inclined to believe they were wicked ghosts. After all, if you try to get close to a mysterious blue flame, then proceed to sink into marshy ground and nearly drown, you're probably going to return to your village and tell everyone about the lil' flamy douchebag that almost killed you. Here they are mostly unremarkable creatures with low stats. They nullify instant death and resist physical damage, but they are weak to expel and to every other other kind of elemental damage and status ailment, so they can be a genuine liability in almost every situation. We're gonna replace it with something better as soon as possible.

"Foul" is straight up the Gedo race, still dark-aligned. Semi-sentient slimes, balls of evil energy, etc.

*: This little dude hurts a fair bit more than the Will o' Wisps but it's still an easy fight.

Haunt PretaPreta is the Hindu name of the Gaki, which we are quite familiar with by now. You can't see it in this picture but it has a little polygonal penis and accompanying Rocky Mountain Oysters. I'm not making this up. It's kind of scary that you think I would.

The Haunt race is the translation of the Yuki, being demons generally associated with death and negative reincarnation.

The center of this door is pulsating. This whole place feels strangely... alive.

*: We come to a T intersection.

Voice: ...This way...> The old man and the woman disappeared...: Bah, like I have any reason to listen to you.

I go right instead.

*: And we get into another fixed encounter for our trouble. It's not much harder than the others, fortunately. It's worth noting that we can use our Talk command, but it always results in a "The demon is ready for action!" message, and we lose our turn.

The Jirae used to be called Chirei, and are various earth and nature spirits.

*: Behind the demons is another Cache Cube, containing a Maragi Rock, a one-shot item dealing weak fire damage to all enemies. We took a bit of a beating, so I go back to Dr. Dark, then take the left path. There's an encouter with two Kodama, and another door.

The fight earns us level 3, which is the requirement to learn Lunge from Marogareh. Lunge is similar to our basic attack, with a bit more damage and a bit less accuracy. It also costs 5 HP. Non-spell attacks cost HP to use, like in SMT2. It's calculated as a certain percentage of the user's maximum HP, so physical attackers tend to need healers as backup.

Voice: ...So, you made it...: This was... less difficult than I had expected.

*: And we're teleported back to the front of the elevator, in the hospital.

At least it still works. Hmmm... Let's try the roof first. I want to look outside.

Aw hell. This really happened, didn't it.

No, no, no. Focus. Keep moving. Elevator. Ground floor.

Gah. Guess I'm not getting out this way.

Had to check. I... I have to assume this happened when Tokyo crumpled up. I don't know if that'll ever stop feeling weird to say.

: Were you trying to leave the hospital?: That was the plan, yeah. Still is, in fact.: Then, how about next door? This is the main building, but there's an annex. Maybe you can use that entrance.: Yeah, I remember! Good point, thanks.

: Chiaki? Isamu, you say?: That's right. Did you see them or not?: I don't know anyone by that name...: I... don't know why I expected you would. Sorry.

If Hijiri made it, and I made it... There's the happiest thought I've had in a while, for sure. But I'll be even happier if I can find them.

*: Apart from the elevator in the north, the lobby has exits to both wings of the main building. I take the east one first.

I wouldn't have expected this place could get any more eerie.

*: The ground floor turns out to be mostly locked doors, though there is a Cube with a Medicine in the west wing. I head through a staircase to the second floor, which should connect to the annex in some way. And some of the doors up there are unlocked.

: Magatsuhi is the source of demonic powers, I think. I don't know much about it...: It's still more than I knew before we met. Thanks!

Voice: Maga......tushi............Magatushi...>The door is locked from the other side.: And I like it that way.

*: We find some more Medicine, and a couple Lifestones, which are basically the same Magic Stones as in previous installments. They restore a percentage of your HP and are often requested during negotiation.

I didn't expect anything I've seen so far, but I especially didn't expect this.

: I could say the same!: Are you looking for something, too?: I am, actually. A security pass of some description.: Hey, about that thing you're looking for... I'll help you, if you want!: I'd be delighted!

: A demon who can help take me to Yoyogi Park.: Bodyguard duty, eh? I can swing that.: You look kinda flabby and weak, but I'll let that slide.: And you're rude, and you have impossibly high standards, but I can let that slide too.: Whaddya say? Should we join up?: Absolutely.: Alright then, let's get outta here! If we have the Pass-thingie, we can get through that door to the annex. I saw some Pretas carrying it.: Welp, I can see where this is going. At least I already know where they are.

: The pleasure's all mine.>Pixie joined your party.

Lv2 Fairy PixieIt's a Pixie. We know Pixies. I feel kinda cheap giving you the short version but this is time-consuming enough as it is, I'm only going to elaborate on the new stuff. Such as, they resist electric damage! It's so nice to have this info within reach.

And the Fairy race was known as the Yousei, which are various whimsical fey folk.

: Wait one goddamned minute. Hold the presses!*: Aight, what's up?: What is this fuckery?*: Don't make me guess.: This clown also gets a pixie for free? Am I the only one living on Pays-For-Pixies Island?: Basically, yeah.*: Mmm-hmm.: Also! I don't see a computer. That is a huge problem. How do they even understand each other?*: Pay attention, man. Dude's a demon now. He speaks fluent demon. The Magatama's the babelfish from hell. It's not rocket science.: Alright, okay, I'll grant him that one. He got a flesh-devouring bug dropped down his gullet, he deserves a bit of a break.*: How kind of you. May we go on now?: Bah, fine. I'll just be over there, paying for pixies. Like a sap.: How many pixies do you even need?: IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO HAVE TOO MANY PIXIES.

*: Aaaanyway. We turn right back and return to the Preta room.

I gotta say, automap science has come a long way.

*: Now if you're used to your typical JRPG combat system, a number of things in that fight probably made you raise an eyebrow or two. In fact, this battle is a pretty effective demonstration of the glorious Press Turn System. Let's go turn-by-turn, if you will.

First off, the first team to act, in this case the Pretas' since it was a surprise round, receives a number of turn icons equal to the number of creatures on their side. These turn icons are the dragon-looking symbols in the upper right. Your enemies get red ones, you get blue ones. Every member's action consumes one icon, and everyone gets a move in an order determined by their Agility stat.

However, you've certainly noticed that the Pretas got four moves in before their turn was over: three basic attacks and a Suku-kaja cast. This is because the second Preta's attack was a critical hit. Criticals only consume half an icon. More precisely, they turn a normal icon into a flashing icon. Flashing icons can be used to perform any action, and are used up first; you can't turn a full icon into a half-icon if you already have a half-icon present. In any case, the turn order loops around to the fastest creature and keeps going until no icons remain.

Yes, this does mean that three icons can be turned into six actions. We can also take advantage of this, of course.

We take our first turn. Zed punches a Preta, and Pixie heals Zed because I forgot to make sure he was already full up. Two actions, two icons consumed.

Second enemy turn. The first Preta consumes an icon with its Feral Claw. The second Preta tries to do the same, but Zed dodges. This ends their turn: a missed attack consumes two icons, which is to say the icon used for the attack itself, and an additional penalty icon. There is no icon left for the third Preta to act.

Our second turn, Zed throws a punch and misses, consuming our only two icons. Turn over.

Third enemy turn. The third Preta crits, halving their last icon. The fastest Preta crits at the end as well, but you can't half a flashing icon. Turn over.

Our third turn. Zed finishes off the left Preta. This has the added benefit of making sure the enemy team only gets two icons instead of three next turn. Then Pixie casts Zio on the second Preta, hitting its weakness to electric damage. Exploiting an elemental weakness consumes half an icon, just like a critical would. In addition, the electric damage has caused the Shock ailment. Physical attacks on Shocked creatures always crit. Zed uses up our last icon to kill the Shocked Preta.

Fourth enemy turn. Only one Preta remains, so he has only one icon.

Our fourth turn, swing and a miss.

Fifth enemy turn. He crits and therefore gets a second action.

Our fifth turn. Punch, Zio, it's like Rapture in here.

So! That might have been a bit much to digest, so I'll summarize.

-Most actions take up one turn.-Getting a critical hit only uses up half a turn.-Exploiting a specific weakness only uses up half a turn.-Missing uses up two turns.

In addition, there are a few more turn effects we haven't seen in this battle.

-All creatures can pass a turn, skipping their place in their team's turn order. This uses up only half a turn. (This can be useful in many situations, like passing a turn to your healer so you don't risk a miss before you can get your health back.)-Dealing damage that is reflected uses up all your remaining turns, and your enemies start acting immediately.-Dealing damage that is absorbed also uses up all your turns.-Dealing damage that is nullified counts as a miss, using up two turns.

That is the meat and potatoes of it. Don't sweat it if it's not entirely clear; we're gonna see a lot more of it, and you're smart, you'll figure it out. Do feel free to ask for clarifications as well, that's why I'm here.

Aaaaanyway! We got ourselves an Annex Pass, didn't we?

: You'll probably die. Nice knowin' ya!: You should be nicer to people you think are gonna die nearby, because we're gonna spend a long-ass time together if I come back as one of you.

*: We don't even have time to reach the other side of this passage before I'm forcefully notified that random encounters have been turned on. By stumbling on a random encounter, natch. Two Kodama, no sweat.

Hmm. Well, here goes nothing.

: Heyo.

: Alright then, you'll just have to die first!

*: Oh hey, failing at conversation also eats up two icons. The Kodama both attack Zed, leaving him with 7 HP. This is one of those cases where I have him pass his turn so Pixie can heal him before he has a chance to fumble the ball.

In any event, we take out one of the Kodamas and attempt to chat up the remaining one.

>Kodama seems to be satisfied.: I'm Kodama the Jirae! Let's be fwends!>Kodama joined your party.: Well hey, I could get used to this. Let's go, kids.

*: And by "let's go", he means "let's go back to the healing room in the basement because I'm getting the shit kicked out of me". We run into more Kodama along the way, but seeing as we're with one of their own, they let us pass without problems.

*: Hey, that's new. A Will o' Wisp approaches us of its own initiative at the start of a first round.

: Urryyy... YoU... Life Stone...HaVe SSSpArE?: Yeah, I got a couple. Here, first one's free.: HEH HEH HEH HEH!!>Will o' Wisp is happy.: I never thought I'd see the day.: BlarYeeegAiiiiee!>Will o' Wisp edged up to you. It seems that it wants to join your party.: I suppose I can use all the help I can get. Welcome aboard, my good fellow. Try not to drip pure malice on my shoes, it's the only pair I got.: Fri-eNd! Fri-eNd! Fri-eNd! Me, Foul Will o' Wisp!! We, nICE toGeTher worK...!>Will o' Wisp joined your party.

*: Just like that, its other allies leave peacefully. I wasn't expecting to see this so soon. The Foul race is among those who will never join you under normal circumstances, but clearly being approached out of the blue by what is usually a quasi-mindless blob of hate is not a normal circumstance.

On the way back to the healer, we gain enough experience to level up and learn Analyze from Marogareh, which basically scans an enemy for resistances and weaknesses, as you might guess.

We heal up, save, and then come back to the annex passage. On the way, a few of our allies level up.

: Wait what.

*: That's right, demons level up now. Will o' Wisp increased its Magic and learned Zan (single target force damage), and Pixie increased her Strength and learned Seduce. Seduce is especially interesting as it functions just like Zed's regular Talk command, so she can negotiate with enemies as well. It works a lot better on dudes and a lot worse on not-dudes, though. Also on level up...

: What's on your mind?: I shouldn't need this, so I'll give it to you.> ...You received Bead.

*: Beads restore someone's HP to maximum, so that's pretty cool!

As we reach the Annex at last, we are greeted by a curious sight.

: It's hard to miss.: That's Forneus! As long as he's here, it's not gonna be easy to get out of this hospital.

The exit's down there. It's the only way out. I... feel like I should be scared. But I'm not. There's something inside me, literally inside me, telling me I should just be glad I know whose ass I gotta kick.

*: The Annex's aboveground layout is essentially a mirror image of the main building's. As we reach the base of the U-shaped section, we run into...

: But, this future is only one of many possibilities. The future is not written in stone. I shall help you. What future do you desire?: A bright future would be nice.: If you wish for a bright future... Know your enemies and use attacks that they are weak against. If you do, a bright future full of attacking shall await you. It is not easy to learn your enemies' weaknesses... Only through battles shall you gain knowledge.: And what if I wanted a dark future?: Hmmm! Well, if you wish for a dark future... Continue to use useless attacks, and your attacks shall be nullified, reflected, or absorbed. If you do all of this, a dark future full of defending shall await you.: That's about what I figured. Thanks anyway.: I shall wait here until you learn your future... Bwahahahahaha!

*: There's no elevator on this side, so we'll need to take the stairs located at the end of either wing. It's just as well, we should clean out the place anyway.

: I can tell I'm going to hear that a lot.: TAKE THIS AS A SIGN OF OUR MEETING.>You obtained Medicine x1.: Huh. Thanks, little guy.: RARR!! US DEMONS HAVE IT ROUGH.

: What is it?: The demon next door isn't trying to eat me, is he???: Nah, he seems like a good enough sort.: Hey... wait a sec... You're a demon, too! Noooooo! Don't eat me!!: Good to see the people here have a healthy fear of being eaten by demons.

*: A Cube in the same room contains a Revival Bead, which does pretty much exactly what you think it does.

Whoops, I expected a staircase here. It must only be at the end of the east wing, then.

There's a little garden of sorts down there instead of parking lot, with three visible Cubes. It's surrounded by water and there's no clear way to get there from the ground floor, but if you angle the camera just right you can see a down staircase in the middle, so you must be able to reach it from underground.

As I expected, I can confirm that Will o' Wisps don't give a crap whether you have one of theirs on your side or not. Our own Will learns the Riberama spell, which increases the frequency of random encounters until the next new moon equivalent. This'll make more sense later.

: I sure am!: Even if you're strong, you won't be able to beat him alone. Don't just beat all the demons. Try talking to them, and get them to join you.: Way ahead of you, kid.

*: After taking the stairs down to the ground floor, we realize the way to the lobby is barricaded.

: I really don't.: I saw a human sneak past Forneus just a while ago.: Huh, alright then. That was worth it, thanks.

*: Fortunately there are more stairs on the other side of the corridor, leading to the basement. This must be the section behind the locked door we saw earlier.

This side is certainly tidier.

: ...Demons stick together, so defeat the demons in the way first... They disrupt conversations... *mumble*

: There's a trick to negotiating with demons... *mumble*

: ...There are some races of demons that rarely join through negotiation... *mumble*

My my my, multiple morgue mumblers!

*: This door to the east is a shortcut to the first part of the basement, so we can heal up and save. As we do so, Kodama levels up, learns Dia (single target heal) and gives us a Chakra Drop (MP restoration). Hijiri is still where we left him, but he has nothing new to say.

: I hear that Shibuya's a fun place, with stores and a club and all.: Even now? That makes me kinda curious.: Darn! If only Forneus wasn't here! Hope he didn't hear that...

: Hiya!: You want me to come with you?: Yeah. Will o' right here is a nice enough guy but I'm not sure he's up to facing the big kahuna.: ............> Hua Po is still wary of you.: I'll do what you say for 50 Macca.: Small change!: Your manners with money are simply incorrigible... This simply is not enough!: Welcome to Pays-for-Hua-Po Island, buddy.: I want 1 Life Stone.: Aight. You do realize I'm saving your life right now, don't you?

> Hua Po seems to be satisfied.: I'm Hua Po the Jirae. Don't get me in trouble.: Ha, good one.

Jirae Hua PoAccording to ancient Chinese mythology, these adorable little tree spirits come into existence when... uh. Hmm, wait, that can't be right.: Come on, out with it. I'm sure everyone wants to know how to meet to meet one of them.They come into existence when three people hang themselves from the same tree.: Okay, I'm man enough to admit when I'm wrong. And that just happened.Anyway, early game spellcasters, fire-aligned. Pester is a conversation skill that allows its user to request money or items from enemy demons.

*: A bit further, we find more stairs leading up, certainly to the other side of the annex lobby. I didn't find the way to the little garden; makes me doubt my memory somewhat. Anyway, we're almost done here.

: Or die trying, yeah.: Err...: Hahaha... Yeah, right! I'll give you all my money if you can do that.: I'll hold you to it. And you better have enough, or I'll have to eat you.

It's a miniature copy of the cylinder in the basement, set in what looks like a supply closet. It saves just as well as the other one, though.

*: I know Forneus is behind this door. Now I haven't played this game in nearly a decade, but I do remember he uses some pretty scary ice attacks. Hua Po is weak to ice, and Will o' Wisp is weak to magic, which leaves us with only three members of a possible party of four. I'll run around with Riberama on and see if I can't pick up someone else. We do have free healing nearby, so it should be fairly painless.

In an event reminiscent of earlier games, a pair of Hua Po appear immediately after we defeat a group of Wisps and Preta. We could take them for sure, but Kodama is weak to fire, and with good use of the Pass command, Zed manages to talk the both of them into leaving peacefully.

*: Nothing else happens for now. Mysterious! A bit later, at the end of a fight with two groups in a row...

: The only ones who haven't joined me yet are the Preta. You wanna be like a Preta?: HMM...> Shikigami is thinking intently.: I WILL LISTEN TO YOU FOR 1 Life Stone.: No prob.: CURSE YOU! STILL NOT ENOUGH! HAND OVER 1 Life Stone.: This would be simpler if you said so in the first place, you overgrown bookmark. Here.

: I AM Shikigami THE Brute. I WILL TRAVEL WITH YOU.: Just stay away from Hua Po, alright? She, uh, likes to burn stuff.

Brute ShikigamiShikigami are animated paper familiars, crafted by onmyoji astrologists/occultists/wizards to perform the sort of simple and menial tasks one could expect an animated paper creature to do. They are of course weak to fire, but they also reflect electric damage. Beseech is a conversation skill that attempts to recruit its target, and the upcoming Tarunda is a physical attack power debuff.

Brutes used to be known as Youki. In Nocturne they mostly consist of various typically Japanese Oni-type ogres, but also include a number of warlike supernatural creatures inclined towards physical combat.

*: As if on cue, we level up, and learn Life Bonus from Marogareh. It's a passive skill that increases our max HP by 10% for as long as we can stand to have it taking up one of our eight skill slots, which is certainly the case at this time.

We return Will to stock and summon Shikigami. It's now or never.

*: The game is kind enough to warn us when we're about to enter a boss room. This time, we're ready.

*: This could hardly have gone any better. I should have used Lunge when we Shocked Forneus early on because it couldn't have missed, but it hardly mattered in the end. You did see Mabufu and Icy Death though, and I'm sure you can imagine we would have taken a lot more damage if we had Hua Po and Will o' Wisp still around.

Fallen ForneusDid I tell you this mofo would be promoted to boss status, or did I not? Well, I suppose I can't expect you to remember. At any rate, I did tell you, and I was right, because that's how I roll. Great Marquis of Hell, 29 legions of demons, answers truthfully to questions asked, etc.

We used to know the Fallen race as the Datenshi; they used to be angels in service to God, but rebelled and were turned into monsters as punishment.

We can see the way out, but first, we need to heal up, save, and collect on a debt.

: All that butt-kicking gave me a mmmmmighty hunger.: You really beat him...: Oh he's hella dead.: Dang! A promise is a promise!! Take it!!>You obtained 850 Macca.: Dammit. I need to escape from poverty first, before I can escape from here...: Dumbass gamblers. Bah.

*: The Cubes in the Lobby contain Medicine and a Revival Bead, which is quite appropriate for the end of what is essentially the tutorial dungeon.

We fight in the lobby a bit further to run out the rest of the Riberama effect, and I try Hua Po's Pester to pick up some loot. We manage to bum a couple Life Stones and Mazan Stones (force damage, all enemies) off Shikigami, but also...

: How are you? Wonderful! I'll kiss it and make it better!>You recovered HP.*: And by "you", the game means "whoever used the conversation skill".: : : : *: You do realize you're drooling at six suicides, right?: Fairies kissing fairies, I don't care!: Call me when things get tough! Goodness, I probably won't come, though. Goodbye!

*: Pester doesn't work so well on Kodama, though. Zed's Talk is fairly effective against everything that can be talked to, but demon conversation skills hinge heavily on the two demons' personalities. When Hua Po's "playful young woman" personality begs Kodama's "little kid" personality for free stuff, Kodama tends to answer with something along the lines of "you're the adult, you should be the one giving me presents!".

At one point, letting Marogareh do its thing gives us a permanent +1 Agility. Spectacular!

Before we can leave, Pixie levels up and attempts to change a skill. We can allow or forbid it, because it can succeed or fail. If it succeeds, one of the demon's abilities that has an upgrade turns into the next better version of itself. In our case, Pixie's Dia became Media, which heals our entire group. If it had failed though, Dia would have become a completely random spell of equivalent or slightly greater power, which could technically be an improvement but is still likely to be somewhat inconvenient at least. However, signs of change can still be seen on her body, so she's still got something bigger in store.

And a few phases of the "moon" later...

*: Who could this mysterious man in red-: It's Dante.: Did someone say Dante?: Danteeeeee! *: No one knows-: Dude, everyone knows.: His name's on the box.

Hmm, unless youtube is lying to me, less than a quarter of the people reading this thread seem to watch the videos. I absolutely don't want to guilt people into watching, but I'm curious about whether you guys would prefer if I just took significant screenshots and transcribed everything else. I myself was torn at the start because recording cutscenes meant I couldn't write up dialogue for key sequences, but I figured that describing boss battles was easily the weakest aspect of my prior efforts, and that'd I'd rather showcase the game's visual style as much as possible. I'm still on the fence, though, because if people skip over significant plot points because of the format I present them in, I'm really doing them a disservice! Any thoughts?

I could go either way. I've been reading this on the train to work (and back) each day, meaning I can't watch the videos until I'm at a desktop. Usually I'll just skip them over and watch them later. So, in that situation, having them in picture form would be better for me.

On the other hand, when I DO watch the video, it's really cool that it's your own game going on, rather than links to key cutscenes, done by other people. We get to see entire battles happen with the party we've seen you build. I like that. And for cutscenes themselves, you should post videos either way, since I get the feeling there aren't a ton of cinematics after this intro part of the game.

So, onto the LP: WHAT

Is that ACTUAL DANTE from frigging DEVIL MAY CRY?

DANTE'S in this?!

Look I know you can get away with absolutely anything in SMT, but holy hell.

The Tokyo Dyson Sphere thing is really cool. Do you get to run around the surface of it, or is it just a big ol' skybox? Do they ever say anything about what happened to the world outside of Tokyo?

Kodama is officially the crappiest demon this series has seen since Jack Frost. They did z e r o work on that thing.

Surprised you didn't try to recruit Forneus! Is it possible to talk bosses into joining?

Throwing my vote in for more Will O'Wisp, since he's the first demon you've got that is a literal Doom-style flaming skull monster. Plus I wanna hear him talk more.

François wrote:Jirae Hua PoAccording to ancient Chinese mythology, these adorable little tree spirits come into existence when... uh. Hmm, wait, that can't be right.: Come on, out with it. I'm sure everyone wants to know how to meet to meet one of them.They come into existence when three people hang themselves from the same tree.: Okay, I'm man enough to admit when I'm wrong. And that just happened.

??????!!!!!!!

The hell's bell's kinda straight-to-DVD folklore is that?

I like how it takes three full suicides for a single promiscuous pixie to happen. SEX IS DEATH

François wrote:

I really really love this thing and want to see more of it.

Overall this game is way more of an adventure than I was expecting. Curious to see how fucked up everything is outside the hospital.

Also: Do they ever explain what a Magatama is or is it just The Thing From The Matrix with vague connections to the demon side?

Mothra wrote:I could go either way. I've been reading this on the train to work (and back) each day, meaning I can't watch the videos until I'm at a desktop. Usually I'll just skip them over and watch them later. So, in that situation, having them in picture form would be better for me.

On the other hand, when I DO watch the video, it's really cool that it's your own game going on, rather than links to key cutscenes, done by other people. We get to see entire battles happen with the party we've seen you build. I like that. And for cutscenes themselves, you should post videos either way, since I get the feeling there aren't a ton of cinematics after this intro part of the game.

Hmm, alright, good points. I haven't made a final decision yet, and I'm absolutely open to more comment, but I'll keep it all in mind.

So, onto the LP: WHAT

Is that ACTUAL DANTE from frigging DEVIL MAY CRY?

DANTE'S in this?!

Look I know you can get away with absolutely anything in SMT, but holy hell.

I hear the rationale behind his inclusion is that he's a demon hunter in a universe with a distinct demon world and human world, so it sorta fits. It would imply that there's a Maou Mundus and company running around somewhere, but Fiend Dante himself is the only part of his games' universe that visibly crosses over into Nocturne.

In any case, the SMT/DMC connection runs a bit deeper, in that Kazuma Kaneko designed Dante's Devil Trigger form in DMC3, though that hadn't happened yet by Nocturne's release.

The Tokyo Dyson Sphere thing is really cool. Do you get to run around the surface of it, or is it just a big ol' skybox? Do they ever say anything about what happened to the world outside of Tokyo?

The inside of the orb is divided into six world map segments (four arranged along the equator, one on top, and one underneath; it'll make more sense once I show the main map screen), and if I remember correctly we visit all of them. If you see some geographical feature across the world when the camera looks up, it's a place we're going to sooner or later. As for the rest of the world, it was obliterated in the blink of an eye for reasons that we'll discover in time.

Kodama is officially the crappiest demon this series has seen since Jack Frost. They did z e r o work on that thing.

I think it's the animation work that sells it, it looks so damn smooth in motion.

Surprised you didn't try to recruit Forneus! Is it possible to talk bosses into joining?

Gah, that's one thing I forgot to show. Basically, you can't. But Forneus is a standard Datenshi Fallen, and given the appropriate ingredients and level, we can get him through fusion later. In fact I seem to remember that most bosses are obtainable through fusion, but only once you've defeated them, or progressed past the point in the story where you would have defeated them if you're on a path that doesn't fight them at all.

François wrote:I really really love this thing and want to see more of it.

Caps lock truly is cruise control for cool.

Also: Do they ever explain what a Magatama is or is it just The Thing From The Matrix with vague connections to the demon side?

It's difficult to explain what it is without explaining why it's been given to us, and by whom. And that's super spoilery. That said, the word "magatama" itself usually refers to the strange 9-shaped beads/jewels that you often see in anime, worn by priestesses, psychics or generally characters with a connection to the spiritual realm.

On the main menu screen, our little friend is shown all curled up in a shape very reminiscent of the jewel, so the reference is entirely deliberate.

Mothra wrote:I could go either way. I've been reading this on the train to work (and back) each day, meaning I can't watch the videos until I'm at a desktop. Usually I'll just skip them over and watch them later. So, in that situation, having them in picture form would be better for me.

On the other hand, when I DO watch the video, it's really cool that it's your own game going on, rather than links to key cutscenes, done by other people. We get to see entire battles happen with the party we've seen you build. I like that. And for cutscenes themselves, you should post videos either way, since I get the feeling there aren't a ton of cinematics after this intro part of the game.

Hmm, alright, good points. I haven't made a final decision yet, and I'm absolutely open to more comment, but I'll keep it all in mind.

I've been trying to judge whether or not a movie's worth it - the computer I read these on doesn't have speakers, so I have to open up the thread on another computer (my gaming/media source) to watch the videos.

François wrote:On the main menu screen, our little friend is shown all curled up in a shape very reminiscent of the jewel, so the reference is entirely deliberate.

Really wondering why it's half-robot. I guess they just liked the look of it.

One thing I never quite understood about SMT is how the computer program biz relates to the demon world. The computer is what translates their language into ours, right? Without it, the main character couldn't talk to anyone?

But you could store demons as data, so there's a way of digitizing them? Am I way overthinking this?

Grath wrote:I've been trying to judge whether or not a movie's worth it - the computer I read these on doesn't have speakers, so I have to open up the thread on another computer (my gaming/media source) to watch the videos.

It had occurred to me to start labeling videos "Cutscene" or "Battle", so that might be an immediate low-effort improvement in that regard. I'll make it so!

Mothra wrote:One thing I never quite understood about SMT is how the computer program biz relates to the demon world. The computer is what translates their language into ours, right? Without it, the main character couldn't talk to anyone?

But you could store demons as data, so there's a way of digitizing them? Am I way overthinking this?

You're essentially correct on all points. I mean, back in the day, Steven would increase your maximum party size when you brought him Memory Boards. When your allies aren't presently summoned, they're literally ones and zeroes on your hard drive. And it's not just demons that work that way. Remember Terminal travel? It's not really teleportation, we were literally sending ourselves over the Internet from one location to another. That's the hidden mechanism underneath everything: life is data, matter is data, the soul is data. Computers are nothing if not unparalleled data manipulation engines, and whoever masters the computer has the power to make heaven and earth tremble.

The entire series' premise is loosely based on Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei, a Japanese novel released in 1986 about a high school student who writes a Demon Summoning Program and uses it to take revenge on bullies, culminating with a demon named Loki possessing the school computer system and hypnotizing people into killing each other. Stories of that ilk share a very ancient trope, when you think about it. Computers take the place of the shaman, the medium or the witch-doctor; they're the gateway between the mundane, relatively safe world of humans and the roiling, treacherous and obscure spirit world.

Computers were originally going to play a large role in Nocturne; I read an interview with Kazuma Kaneko where he mentioned the first designs for the protagonist had him becoming some sort of occult cyborg where he wasn't just carrying a computer, the computer was an outright part of him, and there were electronic doodads physically coming out of him. But apparently they couldn't make it look right and went back to the drawing board, eventually settling on visuals much more inspired by shamanistic tattoos. In the end, it's a living creature, a demonic symbiote, that makes him a pivot point between worlds, rather than technology. That decision has influenced much of the game's overall setting, with one of the more obvious examples being Terminals having been replaced by a variation on Buddhist prayer wheels.

First off, you absolutely can turn full turn icons into half icons even if you already have a half icon on the board; crits and elemental exploits won't use up half-icons if there are remaining full icons to transform. I don't know what possessed me to tell you the exact opposite.

Second, beating Forneus earned us Wadatsumi, a new Magatama.

Unsurprisingly given its source, Wadatsumi is ice-aligned and a bit more spellcaster-oriented than Marogareh. There are several demons around this area able to cast Zio so it's a little risky to use, but we're putting it on anyway. Each Magatama icon on the selection screen pulsates, wriggles and shines at a different speed; the more lively the bug, the closer we are to the level requirement for it to teach us its next skill. Right now Wadatsumi is practically begging to give us Ice Breath, and I'll be more than happy to oblige on the next level up.

That's a bit of a geographical change, let's say. In a neat touch, you can see the hill of dirt in front of the eastern entrance to the hospital. And your eyes aren't tricking you, we are indeed walking around the interior of the Vortex World.

Do note the spherical indicator in the bottom left corner. It shows us on which segment of the overall world we're currently located. The point of view of this indicator is fixed (think of it as being from the perspective of a geosynchronous satellite), so we can rely on the segment with Shinjuku on it always being the back, so to speak.

In any event, we're surrounded on three sides by a terrifying void speckled by chunks of land still somehow barely hanging on, so our only egress is to the west. Or, err, well, whatever "west" means here.

I'd talk to these new guys, but they are of the Wilder race and there's essentially no point.

Lv6 Wilder ZhenA colorful mythical bird of Chinese folklore, the Zhen is most notable for being extraordinarily venomous due to its strict diet of viper heads. In an interesting parallel to the western Basilisk leaving devastation wherever it walks, the Zhen can kill animals and vegetation just by flying over them. Wing Buffet is still a fairly weak group-hitting force-elemental attack, Toxic Sting can cause poison, and War Cry debuffs physical attack power by two levels.

We used to know the Wilder race as the Youjuu. They are dangerous supernatural animals or demon beasts, and as with the Haunt and Foul races, communicating with them is difficult at best.

: No... But, let's pretend it is.: Then, let me tell you something. This is Shinjuku, and if you go south from here... ...Well, Tokyo's round, so I'm just talking relatively here... If you go south, you'll see Yoyogi Park and Shibuya. Speaking of which, I saw a human head toward Shibuya.

*: In a clever bit of design, the enemies around here are Haunt, Wilder and Foul, so you pretty much can't avoid earning yourself some battle experience here, unless you run away from everything.

Here's Shinjuku Station, essentially inaccessible. As we wander around, we can see pockets of abandoned buildings in between stretches of nearly featureless desert. The sand around each island of former civilization forms concentric circles strangely reminiscent of zen gardens.

*: Hot damn! Look at the good fortune on this guy!: Er...!! You! You, over there! You! You! You!: Settle down, little dude, you're real easy to notice.: Life Stone... You have? Have?: Yeah, sure, don't spend it all in one... uh. Whuh-oh.*: Yikes, I must have sold our last Life Stone to a Shikigami without realizing it.: Me tricked! Me look stupid!> Zhen suddenly attacked!

Guess I better start minding my supplies!

: Do I know you?: ...Have you heard of the Tokyo rumor?

Rumor? Aw hell, that must be that student I ran into before the... before. Is it racist if I can't tell ghosts apart?

: I probably haven't heard, no.: A guy with a strong will is going to change this chaotic world....: Dante!: ...That's a good one, huh? Tokyo's forever in chaos! Hahahahahahaha!!: I gotta say, I liked you better alive.

So there's Yoyogi Park. We made a deal, better honor it.

: It's a bit further than I remembered, but I probably can't trust my recollection anymore.: Does... does it have to be?: We made it to Yoyogi Park, so I guess we can part ways now.: Are you kidding? Have you seen the rest of my crew?: *bUrrRrp*: Fire! Fire! Uweeheehee!: GET IT AWAY FROM ME! IT'S IN MY HAIR!: Awe we thewe yet?: It's like hell's own daycare in here. Please stay. I need you.: Mmmm... I like the way that sounds. *flirt* You win! I'll stay with you a while longer!: Thank you! Oh thank you!

*: Just like that, Pixie is now with us for as long as we'll have her. You can tell her to go instead, and if you do so she'll give you the Ankh Magatama and leave forever. Now a Pixie with a couple levels on her versus a free Magatama seems like a no-brainer, but there are two facts to consider, neither of which you are aware of on a blind playthrough.

First off, Ankh is available for purchase later. It has basic healing spells learnable at low levels so it would be nice to have it now, but we're not permanently screwed out of it.

Second, this particular Pixie is unique. We want her in our party in some form for the remainder of the game. We can fuse her into something else without problems, and fuse her descendants as we please, but if we sacrifice or dismiss whatever creature she's currently part of, we'll miss out on something much later on.

There's no one keeping me from exploring this place now, so I might as well check it out while I'm here.

Oh what the deuce.

: Can't say I've had the pleasure.: Then, hurry up and go to the Fountain of Life up ahead. ...She's hot!: Alright, alright, just... Just watch where you're pointing that thing.

: They locked the door, so we can't get in...

*: He's not kidding. The door across from the entrance, leading to the construction site proper, is locked from the other side. Of course, Pixies can fly, so it wouldn't have been a problem for our companion.

: The name Hikawa comes up when I look at it... ...I feel like something bad happened to me...: Trust me, it's best not to think too hard about it.

: Protesting the 1%, I suppose.: Is there a large amount of Magatsuhi stashed there or something...?

*: As if on cue, we get into a fight with two Pixies, but it doesn't come to blows.

Better play it cool here.

: Not... specifically, no. What about her?: Seems that she came from some hospital.: !!!

*: The area has a couple doors leading to nondescript square rooms and a few Cubes (we get Life Stones, a Dis-Poison, and a Chakra Drop), but on the eastern side...

: Holy crap, penis dude was right, she is hot!: Your name has reached my humble ears... I will assist you to the best of my ability.: The honor's all mine.

*: Healing! Not free, but whatchagonnado. As in previous games, the cost of healing depends on how much HP and MP you need restored. I'm not sure of the exact formula, but MP costs more than HP, so I'm pretty sure it's not cost-efficient to give your own healers a shot at patching you up first, or at least not for a long time.

As there is no longer a law/chaos alignment axis, the Lady of the Fount is the only health care provider we have to deal with, and our choices never impact her pricing.

If we use the Talk command...

: The Magatama is a spirit of misfortune... There may be times when you shall receive a terrible curse by the Magatama raging within you. But, I will be able to purify your curse with this fountain. Please keep that in mind...

*: Some Magatama will randomly inflict the special Curse ailment on you upon level up. There are specific circumstances where being cursed is actually desirable, but I do recall it has occasional detrimental effects in combat so most of the time you want it cured as soon as possible.

: Go forth now, and do not look back...

*: That's all Yoyogi Park has to offer for now, but we check on Major Dick before we go.

: We've met the Lady. As much as it pains me to agree with you, you were right.: ...Man, she's hot!: I like this guy.: You would, wouldn't you.

: I think I owe you an apology.: It's just like I said... The world's all round! But even now, no one believes me!: Well, I certainly believe you now.: I hear prophecies from Jupiter! You believe me, don'tcha? *hic*: I'd usually draw the line at drunk ghosts, but you have a good track record so far.: Oh! You believe me!? Then, I'll tell you something good! The 'Demi-fiend' is the one that's going to create the new world...: Huh.: By gum! You wouldn't be... Naw! *hic*: Man, there's no way that's me. I wouldn't even know where to start.

: Used to be a bit nicer, before the cultists moved in. Worst gentrification ever.: I wonder if the east side of the park is being occupied by fairies.

Between the high cliffs and the gaping void, we've been everywhere our feet could take us. The only way to the eastern part of this area is through Yoyogi Park, and that's not happening. This is Shibuya though, and if there's a human in here, we gotta check it out.

Not as lively as I'd hoped, but it'll have to do.

: The other cities battle it out because of disagreements, but everyone here's laid-back.

: Hmm?: Where's that Forneus!?: No... no idea... sorry...

Aw...

: There's one with shops, and one with a club. For shops, I recommend the Cathedral of Shadows. They have creepy ceremonies there.: There sure is nothing else I'd rather buy!

*: Speaking of creepy ceremonies! Going behind the building in the center here...

...prompts us to open a door. It's rrrreally not obvious that there's anything at all back there.

*: Mysterious! Ominous!: Familiar!*: If you look closely, you can see the four colored statuettes from Hanada's ritual in SMT2. Nothing else is going on in here for now, though, so we head back to the intersection and go down the stairs to the underground plaza.

Those floors are much shinier than I would have expected.

: What of it?: He's the king of Shit Town, you know. Show proper respect!: Welcome to Kick-Ass Deli, punk! Try my knuckle sandwich!!*: We're thrown in battle against a single Will o' Wisp. It ends predictably.: ............. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!: That's better.: I'll offer you some juicy information, so please forgive me...: I'm listening.: There's a human girl at the club downstairs.: Okay thanks bye!

*: I was thinking of exploring the first basement, but this seems more urgent.

This must be it!

: The club's up ahead.

Yup, this seems clubby enough.

Lv7 Foul Mou-RyoStill a big ol' ball of hate representing a soul that failed to reach heaven. The addition of Pulinpa (causes Panic ailment, single target) and Toxic Sting makes them a fair bit more dangerous than they used to be.

Lv6 Foul SlimeIt's covered in, well, you know. Their physical resistance makes them annoying to fight hand-to-hand, so they tend to be a bit of a MP drain. Last Resort is a kamikaze explosion that can mess up your day, and Sonic Wave can Panic your entire party, so you really want to get these fights over with as soon as possible. And I can't quite recall what Gathering does.

: ...: ...Should I be happy? Like, "I'm glad we're both okay."?: I know I am. But...: It's you, Francois, right? ...I can tell.: Yeah. It's me. How... How have you been doing?: I realized...: It was the Conception. It's the only thing that makes sense, even if it doesn't.: You mean... What was written in that magazine actually happened?: Sounds insane, doesn't it?: ...I feel sick to my stomach.: It's hard to miss.: I couldn't even tell where my house used to be... I seriously thought that I was the only person still alive. ...I'm so glad to see you, Francois.

I just want to run over and give her the biggest damn hug. But... We weren't that kind of close. And are these arms of mine even still good for...?

: I'm glad to see you too, Chiaki.: Maybe... there's still hope.: Of what?: You're right.: Ms. Takao and Isamu might be around somewhere, too.: ...I'm not ready to give up entirely.

And she's just gone.

It feels like she's changed. But I know I've changed more. I would have went with her if she had asked, but I know that she would have refused if I had offered.

Why the hell does this still feel like a messed up dream? This damn music isn't helping!

*: Now that Chiaki's theme left with her, the club is playing an impossibly generic techno beat in a five second loop; it's not on the soundtrack and I don't miss it. Considering the skill put into the rest of the game's music, I'm inclined to believe it's godawful on purpose.

Shinjuku's not as big as it used to be, but it's still pretty big. There must be someone or something who knows a way to get anywhere else.

: Just dis guy, ya know?

: Don't bug me when I'm dancing! Don't you see a dancing queen when you see one!?

: Not a clue!: They have some pretty good stuff in them! But, if you're unlucky, the contents will change. ...I wonder if there's a way to get the good stuff all the time...

Hmm, it's not quite a way out, but as a potential destination, Ginza's no worse than any other.

: There's an organization in Ginza saying that it'll "create a new world".: Huh? "Create a new world"?? I'm scared!

: ......! ...! ...! ......! ...!!!> The DJ is totally into it.

: Meow! I have an idea! If you do something naughty with me, I'll tell you the name!: Do NOT disappoint me.: Aight sweetheart, you're on!: Meow, wonderful!

: Oooh, there's a kinky one!

*: She technically counts as a boss, so Analyze fails. Also apparently "now is not a time for talking", so we really have to duke it out. I lost my first round by learning the hard way that she absorbs force-element damage, but she failed to used Marin Karin (charm ailment) on Hua Po so it still balances out. Fortunately, she's weak to electricity, and Zed's agility is now high enough to make Lunge fairly reliable. The rest of the battle goes smoothly.

Beast NekomataJapanese shape-shifting cats, kill their owners, take their place, meow.: You'd think making the leap from a Nintendo console to a Sony one, there'd be more nipples, not fewer. Alas!

We knew the Beast race as the Majuu; they're intelligent animal-related demons with a nature that's neither particularly holy nor vile. Unlike the Wilder, they're no harder to communicate with than anyone else.

: Ha, thanks for the info, and well fought.

And that's it for Club Inferno. Time to explore the rest of this join, and we're on the second basement already so we might as well start here.

> Let it continue?: Uh, yeah, sure. Far be it from me to deny a girl her womanly changes.

: Dang, all it took was one visit to a crappy club, and she's already got a rockin' makeover!

*: Certain demons can turn into other demons once they reach a specific level. They can even end up with a new level slightly higher than your main character's, as is the case here with this level 10 ally compared to our level 8 hero. The demon's stats change to the new demon's standard stats without taking into account the bonuses they picked for themselves while leveling up, but they do retain all their skills, and will start learning their new form's skills as they keep gaining experience.

We get ambushed on a full moon by Slimes and Mou-Ryos, and they would have destroyed us without High Pixie's Media, so I hope we can find the local Fount soon. We have Medicine to keep us topped up on health for now, but everyone's MP is running low. Hua Po levels up, gains Patra (single target bind/sleep/panic cure) and immediately transforms it into Me Patra (group version), so that was rad.

That's the second basement: the club on the west side, and a few of mostly empty rooms, though one held a Cube with a thousand Macca in it. Back to B1!

: I've seen worse. I'm not sure they'd let me in public baths anymore but somehow I don't think the issue will come up in the foreseeable future.

: Alright, this is actually getting pretty bad. We're nearly out of juice and I don't want to start digging too much into our supplies. I'm gonna have to make an executive decision and return to Yoyogi Park before we get murdered by goop.: LAME.: I mostly agree with you, but at this point I'm so drenched in whatever passes for slime guts that my eyelashes stick together when I blink. And Kodama's all tuckered out. We're leaving.

*: The round trip is largely uneventful. Getting all healed up costs us a cool 500 Macca, but I really don't want to chance it. We've had a mostly easy time of it so far, but I know the game's just waiting for me to slip up.

On the way back, I notice something.

There are two entrances to the underground. A ghost outright told me so. But I completely missed the one on the left side of the screen, and I bet that's where the Fount is. Derp! Oh well, we're gonna finish clearing out the right one anyway, we've already started and we're in good enough shape.

*: We run into some Pixies and I try to use Kodama's new Scout conversation skill to avoid battle, but it's a recruitment attempt, we technically no longer have a Pixie, and she gets offended that a child is trying to hire her. Whoops. Zed does pick up the torch and successfully recruits her afterward though.: Oooh oooh oooh, how much did he pay?*: About 15 HP, but no cash.: Damnit.

: WHEN IT'S FULL, WE BECOME AGITATED AND CANNOT SPEAK WELL. WE ALSO BECOME AGGRESSIVE AND PREVENT ENEMIES FROM ESCAPING. IT'S DANGEROUS WHEN KAGUTSUSHI IS BRIGHTEST. REMEMBER THAT... OR ELSE.

*: In addition, demons deal more damage the brighter Kagutsuchi is, so not only is it very difficult to avoid combat, but you also get hurt more.

The final room of B1 has a Cube with 2 Dis-Charm items, and a forced encounter with another Nekomata. Shikigami shocks her early on, and the succession of guaranteed crits makes for a quick fight.

*: Zed got hit by Plinpa, revealing one of the possible consequences of the Panic ailment. Not a good scene!: NNN??? NNNNNN??? AaaAA...AiiioooEEE??*: Fortunately this time it only uses up Zed's action and then wears off by itself.

This portion of the Shinjuku underground has a second up staircase, leading to a blocked off section of the street above. The only thing up here is a Mystical Chest. It has multiple possible contents, as that ghost mentioned previously, but there is indeed a trick to it. Essentially, you want to open Mystical Chests on a Full Kagutsuchi, which conveniently is the case right now.

The best items a Mystical Chest typically hold will be rare gems or stat-boosting incense. Otherwise it's common stuff like Life Stones and such.

Anyway, we head back down, through the underground mall section, then back up to the street, and back down through the left entrance.

: Yo, Kodama, buddy, do the honors on that one, will you? Maybe she has a soft spot for kids.: Hallo lady. Come with us!: You want me to join you? Watch your tongue! Didn't anyone ever teach you any manners?> You made a bad impression.: I'm not interested. I'm leaving.>Datsue-Ba left.: Welp, you tried. I'll take care of it next time.: Sowwy.

Lv7 Femme Datsue-BaThe Datsue-Ba is an old hag from Japanese Buddhist folklore. She hangs out before the crossing of the Sanzu River at the entrance of the underworld, and she's there to strip the dead naked, so their clothes can be weighed to determine the gravity of their sins. Clothes-based sin evaluation, basically. It's foolproof! If someone tries to be clever and goes to the underworld naked, she flays the skin from their bones instead. So, uh, do think about wearing something light when you're about to punch out, will you? As for having a soft spot for children... When kids show up, she takes their clothes, and then tells them to start piling up stones so they can climb to heaven. But as soon as they get some height, she knocks down their piles and laughs at them. Charming lady, really. Shibaboo attemps to Bind one target, Needle Rush is medium-damage single target physical attack, and Dormina attempts to put an entire group to Sleep.: Cripes, I'm sorry kid, I had no idea.

The Femme race (meaning "woman" in French) were called the Kijo, being warlike or otherwise dangerous female demons or goddesses.

*: Sleeping creatures waste one icon when their turn comes up, but they also recover a very small amount of HP and MP, so in some circumstances it's not entirely terrible.

: Demons and shady stores may ask for gems, but it all comes down to Macca. You can buy anything with Macca!

: Oh come on, it was like the first door down here, dangit.: I TOLD YOU IT WAS LAME.: Yeah, you sure did.: BELIEVE IN YOURSELF MORE, AS WE DO BELIEVE IN YOU.: ...alright, thanks man. I will.

*: We weren't in a bad way yet, but we get topped off anyway. One advantage of paying per point restored is that unlike traditional RPG inns, there's no point in waiting to be at death's door to get your money's worth.

: Hee ho! Welcome!: Heyo.: My goal is to become a super-cool and super-strong demon, like the great King. So I'm thinking of going on a journey to train myself, but I need money, hee ho...: I'll grant that he was cool, he kinda had to be, but he went down pretty easy.*: This particular Jack Frost is named Heeho. Since his entire species' catchphrase slash verbal tic is "hee ho", it probably gets a bit confusing.: Can you help me out by buying lots of stuff, hee ho?: Gimme good prices and I'll see what I can do.: I caught a weird looking thing the other day. It looks like a bug, but it's a demon, hee ho!: !!!: It's probably really, really rare! That's why I'm selling it, hee ho. Please buy it, hee ho!

*: In addition to the typical spread of basic healing supplies, Heeho sells two Magatama: Iyomante for 2000 and Shiranui for 3000. We have a little over 6700 right now, and we eventually want to acquire all the Magatama, so I get them both. I also pick up the ailment cures he sells, enough so that we have five of each Dis-Poison, Dis-Stun and Dis-Mute in our inventory, leaving us with 500 Macca.

: Come again, hee ho!

*: Iyomante isn't particularly specialized, but it does nothing for our magic. Nullifying mind ailments is pretty cool though, especially since it doesn't come with any specific weakness. It would teach us Tarunda next, which is the attack power debuff spell.

On the other hand, Shiranui is clearly spellcaster-oriented. Immunity to fire will definitely come in handy someday, but the Mou-Ryo around here love using force damage so it's a bit iffier. It would teach us Fire Breath.

All that said though, I'm sticking with Marogareh for now, because it's very close to teaching us Berserk, a randomly-hitting multi-target physical attack that I suspect will be a bit more useful in the immediate future.

: We hope that our secret art will be of help to you, master of demons. There are Cathedrals elsewhere; feel free to drop by.: No giant robo-genitals this time, eh?: Not to the inattentive or uninformed spectator, no.: Eh? What... oh. Oh boy. It's worse than... And is that a...? Holy crap, it can't not be! Jesus Christ! Dude! You have a fucking problem!

*: The talk options gives us a number of tutorials, essentially. Most of it is basic stuff we already know or that I'll cover when it becomes relevant, but we can also ask the Minister about Magatama.

: With the power they have sealed inside, Magatama can change humans into demons. Each Magatama's powers are unique, giving their host new skills. There are Magatama that can give techniques that no other demon has ever seen or used. When will it give out new techniques? Ask the Magatama itself. You can tell when the time is near by its movement. We help those who use Magatama in order to fulfill our duty. When you have collected all the Magatama... That will be the time to carry out our mission. Come back to the Cathedral of Shadows once you have collected all the Magatama.

*: And here's our current fusion chart, indicating that a standard fusion will result from any combination of our minions.

Fusing two demons of the same race still results in a Seirei demon, or Element as they are now called. You might wonder why this Aeros would be able to Seduce others! That is because fused demons have a chance to inherit skills from their "parents", in this case a Pixie and a High Pixie. The higher level the ingredients compared to their "base" versions, the more skills have a chance to be passed along, so you have an incentive to level your crew up before chucking them in the tubes.

Skill inheritance has a number of random and obscure rules, but the biggest one to keep in mind is that many skills have special requirements that depend on the new demon's actual body. For example, a demon with no claws cannot inherit Feral Claw, a demon with no mouth cannot inherit Ice Breath, and so on and so forth. Other than that, skill inheritance re-rolls every time you quit out of the process and return to it, so you can try as much as you want, though it can get very time consuming if you're looking for a specific build. Low-tier skills also have a bigger chance to be passed down than higher-tier skills, so if an ingredient has both Dia and Diarahan, it might take a lot of re-rolling to get the latter.

Right now we have a couple party slots open, and I'd like to keep gaining a few more skills with our current squad, so we'll pass on the Cathedral of Shadows at this time. But I will definitely put Shikigami and our new Pixie in the active party for now, because they'll combine into something of interest once they pick up more levels.

: Come back again.

: Head down there if you want the latest scoop!

*: Dang, it's only the first phase. Might as well get in a few fights until the time is right. We have finances to recuperate and levels to gain, so it's all good.

*: Better than a kick in the pants! I let the Full Kagutsuchi pass, go heal up, and then reach the only room we haven't explored yet.

There better be a way east through here or I'll be right boned. Here goes nothing!

: Pardon my French, but what the hell are you doing here?: ...I don't know what to say. You came here all by yourself, on foot!?: Yyyyyup.: You must've gained some incredible power!: Haven't you heard? He's the...: Ixnay on the Ingkay of Itshay Owntay, aight?: Aw.: ...using this. Remember? You saw one just like it at the hospital?: Oh I remember what it looked like, but I didn't realize it was a vehicle.: This isn't an ordinary piece of artwork. It's a truly amazing device.: Using that passageway -- the Amala Network -- you can send anything to a distant location instantly. So basically, I transported myself here from the hospital. I'm guessing that there are more of these devices in different locations, and that they form a huge tranportation network. ...And most likely that network is connected to where Hikawa is.: If you can send me to somewhere that isn't the hospital, it could be the solution to all my problems. Count me in.: If we're gonna have any hope of getting out of this mess, then we've got to find Hikawa.: He seemed like the kind of man who doesn't have as many answers as he thinks he does... But he probably still has more than a few.: I heard there's a group in Ginza that's vying for control of shaping this infant world, and its leader is a human.: So...: Shaking down the big man, eh? I can get behind that plan.: I want you to try and find any information you can about that group. I'll use this device to send you to Ginza.: That's almost the best news I've heard all day.: It's definitely risky, but it's better than wandering around on your own.: Agreed on that count.: ...I'm gonna stay here for a while. Let me know when you decide what you want to do. But, keep this in mind. I have no idea what things will be like in Ginza now. If you do decide to go there, make sure you prepare yourself, alright?

*: We're returned to the Terminal menu. We drop a save, and...

: Absolutely. Hit that Send button, no takebacks.: Once I send you, I'll head over to Ginza too. Until then... stay alive. Good luck!!

: Head towards Ginza? You strand me in the middle of Demon Internet and all the advice you got me for is "head towards Ginza"? Hello?

Huh. Either he can't hear me, or he's pretending he can't hear me. I'm not sure which is worse. Well, I agreed to work with him, I have to assume if he was going to stab me in the back he would have waited to make at least some use of me first. There's nothing to it but to go forward, hopefully towards Ginza, and away from Demon 4chan.

: We're getting further and further away from Kansas every second.: I wish I had couwage...: I THINK I WOULD LIKE TO HAVE A HEART. EVEN IF ONLY A PAPER ONE. IT WOULD BE NICE.: mE WaNT brAiNnnNnN!!: Wow, you're full of surprises, Will. I keep underestimating you. I really wouldn't have guessed you knew anything about the Wizard of Oz.: mE NoT kNOw WiZArD... mE jUsT HUnGrY...: ...right.: mE eAT wiZZzAarD?: Uh, maybe later. Come on, guys.

*: The music's eerie and unsettling enough, but as we enter this door, a weird distorted electric guitar sound layers in, and the whole effect reminds me of the soundtrack to Rez's Noise mode. I'd link you up to it but it's not on the OST; it's really more of an atmosphere piece.

: Of course not. Is there anyone who's actually from around here?: Then, let me warn you... If you don't have a map, you'll get lost.

*: He's not kidding, both sides of the fork here end in opaque black fog a few meters in, and taking the eastern side warps us back to the entrance. It's basically a trial and error maze, and the time until your next random encounter is always ticking down.

Our first fight, against three Mou-Ryo, showcases another possible effect of the Panic ailment: wasting a turn throwing money away. It's only 4 Macca this time, but I'm pretty sure it's a random percentage of your current cash, and later on it can cost you a small fortune.

The second fork has a Cube containing a Dis-Stone on the west side, and taking the path behind it returns us to the beginning.

Fortunately the automapper is up to the task of keeping track of where we've been, so the trip is time-consuming, but not particularly frustrating. We take a left, then a right, and...

Ah-ha!

: Whuh-oh.: Something's up... : Yeah, a door just turned into a dead end. Any advice?: Alright, let me try something. Gimme a minute.: Have you tried unplugging the router and plugging it back in? That usually does the trick.*: The wall's enveloped in a cloud of smoke, and then...

: That makes one of us.: Looks like the Amala Network never stays the same shape. Even you would have a hard time getting through here... Well, if something happens, call me. I'll do what I can.: So you can hear me after all. Very mature.

*: Kodama gains his final skill right after we climb the stairs: it's Anti-Force, which halves received force damage. Now this doesn't do him any good, since he's already naturally resistant to force damage, but it can be pretty useful for whoever we fuse him into. Anti-Element skills don't negate a natural weakness for the purposes of causing enemies to use up more turn icons instead of less, but they're still good for general survivability.

*: This enemy group doesn't initially seem very threatening, but the Will o' Wisps are using Makakaja (magic power buff), which enhances the Mou-Ryo's Zan and Mazan spells to fairly dangerous effect. It's best to take out the Will o's with spells to exploit their weakness to magic and use your extra turns to take out the Mou-Ryo when you're done.

Zed levels up and learns Berserk, at which point I ingest Iyomante to protect him from Panic and keep him from throwing more money away. However, I'll try to put on Wadatsumi just before he levels up next, because I want him to learn Mana Bonus to increase his fairly puny MP reserves.

: Hopefully, it'll be as smooth as the last time...: ...H...ey...... Ca...n...yo...hear...e? Say...som...ing...: Hijiri! You're breaking up! What's happening?: ...Dam...it...! Conn...ction's...unst...ble...: Shut down the porn torrents!> You can no longer hear Hijiri's voice.

*: This wall is labeled "Stairs", but there's still that ominous red cloud here. Better investigate the rest of this floor.

*: Aaaand we run into loose Elements in here, which is really not something you expect anywhere else.

Lv7 Element ErthysGood old earth elementals, of course. Gotta admit "Erthys" looks a lot more dignified than "Earthies"; someone earned their paycheck that day. Rakukaja is the defense buff spell, and if they get a chance to cast it a couple times, better start hitting them with magic. For now their Zio spells are entirely reflected by Shikigami, so if they target him or get a Mazio in, that's the last thing they do on that turn.

Elements are elementals, natch. They're creatures of being rather than acting or willing, but that doesn't stop them from demonstrating the natural world's destructive side when they feel like it.

*: Hot diggity! There's a relief. We certainly can't get to a Fount from here, so this is entirely welcome.

: I don't wanna talk to anyone. I'll heal you if you just go away.: Well that's a foolproof way to make sure I'll come bother you again, but I'll be out of your hair for a little while at least.: I'll heal you anytime. Just don't bug me.

*: The Amala Network has its own save points as well, which makes a lot of sense, considering how we entered it in the first place. Their design is real interesting, in that there is no physical cylinder present, but the actual glowy writing on the cylinder is definitely visible. They're also labeled "Hall of Records" instead of "Terminal". In a way, this Amala Network feels like a sacred place; not in the same sense that a temple is sacred, but in the sense that you're navigating behind the curtain of reality, and you're not visiting places so much as the bare, essential ideas of places. The Halls of Records aren't save points, they are The Save Point.

: It's just a little extraordinary to see actual consciousnesses in here. Though admittedly, not much more extraordinary than whatever else is going on.: If you really want to talk, there's a place where you can talk to the outside world... So talk all you want there.: Alright, maybe I can reach Hijiri from there. Thanks.

*: That makes two people we meet in the Internet that just want to be left alone. Hmm!

*: Oooh, more of this. Joy. Now that I'm back in one of these mazes, I realize that the distorted guitar went away when we exited the last one, because I notice that it's back for the second. That actually makes it kind of neat, how this feature of the Network has its own instrumentation.

LV11 Element AerosAir elementals, you get the picture. They know Zio, as you might expect, but they also know Marin Karin and Dia, so they function as healers when they pop up alonside Erthys. They're resistant to magic, so you definitely want to bring your FISTO on.

*: Iyomante also protects Zed from Aeros' Marin Karin charm attempts, which helps us avoid the double-edged sword of paying 15 HP for a multi-hitting Berserk used on our own squad, and eats up their icons at the same time. That's some Macca well spent right there.

*: Anomaly, eh?

: ...y...he......y... It...me......Hijiri.: Nope! Try again!: Yeah, real funny... I know you can hear me, kid!: From now on, if anything happens, let's meet up in stable places like the one you're in now.: I can get behind that plan. Now how about finding me a way out of here again?: ...Oh, yeah. You're stuck, huh? Just wait a... sec...: That should be it, nice work.: ...Damn. Looks like...communica...ion's...get...ing...ba...d......he...re...too... Let...s...meet...u...p...in...a...nother...stab...le...plac...e... ............ ......Okay...?> You hear nothing.

*: All extended ellipses in the game so far are in multiples of three, it must be a special character to save space, heh. We take an intentional wrong turn in the maze to return to the start, then heal up, save again, and head for the stairs to B1.

*: Three doors are getting blocked off here, one of which clearly having some mad loot. We can't return to this portion of the Amala Network once we leave, so I'll do my best to get to those cubes.

*: Of course.

: Always.: You see the red things running along the walls and roof? That's all Magatsuhi.: Huh. I don't know enough about it to tell if that's a lot, but it sure looks like a lot.: Magatsuhi is born from the flow of emotions, such as suffering, anxiety, and sadness...: Wow. I kind of want it less now. Emotions, huh?: That's right. Emotions bring forth great powers.

: So it is a lot then.: So, there are demons that jump in here, looking for Magatsuhi. Be careful not to be picked on.

*: We auto-battle a lone Mou-Ryo, but one hit away from defeating it...

: YoU... S-S-SaVe, mE...!*: And there's one example of a demon interrupting a battle to beg for their life.: Yeah, I could use Zan spells to take out those Erthys sonsabees. Welcome aboard.: ShhShhWaaaa!! Me, Foul! Me, Mou-Ryo!! We dO wEll toGeTHeR...> Mou-Ryo joined your party.

*: ...this one doesn't know Zan yet. Welp!

Every once in a while we run into a group of five Mou-Ryo. Berserk comes in real handy then, and I actually have Shikigami spend a good third of its MP a pop casting Sukunda (accuracy/evade debuff) to help us avoid some damage and chip away at enemy icons. Shin Megami Tensei: because an accuracy debuff that's absolutely worth using on mooks is the mark of a well thought out battle system.

Whoops, I forgot about Zed leveling up, and we learn Tarunda from Iyomante. It costs 20 MP and our maximum is 36, so that's sub-optimal. Oh well.

Our Pixie tries to evolve into High Pixie, but she can't because we already have a High Pixie on board. She's run out of skills to learn though, so that's my cue to start leveling Mou-Ryo instead. I'd love to get Will o' Wisp to learn its two final skills, but there are so many spells thrown around in here that having him facetanking everything would be the death of us.

Whew, at last.

> You can hear a voice.: ............ It's good to know you're alive. Guess you didn't become a demon for nothing.: At this point it would be uncouth to complain about it.: You couldn't go any further, huh? Wait up.*: He unblocks all three areas. Gonna have to look around the maze to find them, though.: ..Oh yeah, there's something you should know.*: Whoa, two periods. Guess I was wrong.: It seems that someone's trying to intercept my communication with you. Might be an enemy. Be care...ful... ......Looks like...it's...get...ing...un...stable...he...re...to...o...... We'll...tal...k...la...er...> You hear nothing.

*: Ooh, nice.

*: Holy crap we're having the best luck with all those evil glob fellers chatting us up.: Urrryyy... YoU... Revival Bead...HaVe SSSpArE?*: Those are worth 600, but I want to see where this goes.: Not really, but you can have one anyway.: HEH HEH HEH HEH!!> Choronzon is happy.: BlargYeeegAiiiie!!*: Aaand it wants to join up.: Yyyyeah sure.: OoHhehhYohOHAh!! Me, Haunt Choronzon!! We, nICE toGeTher work!

Lv11 Haunt ChoronzonStill a weird metaphysical demon representing the obstacles to enlightenment, according to Aleister Crowley's brand of occultism. Interestingly, in the Bayonetta games, when angels speak their semi-made-up language, you can clearly tell that "choronzon" is their word for "witch". Anyway, here they're clearly fire-aligned, but most remarkably for now, they're some tanky-ass meat-shields with huge HP and the ever-so-useful physical resistance. They also hit harder than anything else we've got at the moment. They eventually learn Stone Gaze, which is a single target petrification attempt, and it counts as a death-type ailment.

: Oops! I should learn to keep my mouth shut...

I can't tell if he's dumb or faking being dumb, so this tell me absolutely nothing. Left it is!

*: We run into more Choronzon, so I end up reforming my party with Mou-Ryo, Will o' Wisp and our own happy friendly faceball in order to use their death-type ailment immunity to avoid Stone Gaze. Zed himself ends up being targeted by it a couple times, but fortunately it never hit. Man this maze goes on forever. We do meet some more Elements who do a number on Will, but Mou-Ryo is actually getting the worst of it because it doesn't have Deathtouch yet to steal its HP back. In between fights I get Pixie to top him off; demons that aren't in your active party can still use their skills at any time outside of combat, which is impossibly practical.

Score!

*: We find a Mazan Rock, a Chakra Drop, and a trap that does a small amount of damage. That's not so great, but opening the Mystical Chest in there on a Full K earns us a Bead Chain, an item which restores our entire party's HP to max.

: But... the Network is in a bad mood, as you can see.

*: A big ol' red wall is blocking the path that presumably leads outside. We gotta keep exploring. Fortunately, there's another Hall of Records and Healing Room nearby, so we don't have to go back to the previous levels to heal up.

: You wish me to join your ranks?*: Oh shi, I don't know why I thought you couldn't talk to Elements. That coulda saved me a bunch of hassle.: We spirits gain meaning only by flowing freely through nature. I have no intention of giving up my freedom. So, forget it!> It has no intention of joining you.*: Ah, so that's why I thought that. I need to believe in myself more, indeed.

This should be the final one.

: You're finally here...: Those mazes, man, those mazes.: The exit is close to where you are. Let me open the--*: The boss intro music is playing.: ...Dammit, something's interfering... ......He...y... Yo...u......ok...ay...? ......hear...me...... ............> You cannot hear Hijiri's voice anymore.: YoU snEAk aRounD... YOuiN the w-W-w-Way!: I don't really care about that stuff, I just want to go to Ginza.: ......nO. YoU aRe LyiNg. Me woN'T Be fOoLED! YoU won'T pASS heRE. Me WOn't LeT yOU. G-G-GeT OUt oF HErE!!

*: We're kicked out, back to the corridor. This door doesn't have a warning about immense power to tell you about the incoming boss, so this is the game's way of keeping up its usual courtesy. We do have to go back in and whup some ass, though.

Foul SpecterAnd there's a synonym for ghost, with connotations of illusion. This particular sumbitch sure was no illusion, though. As little damage as we did with physical attacks, the mofo is resistant to magic, and immune to expel, death, nerve and mind ailments. Interestingly, the level and stats of his large final form depend on how many mini Specters survived the first phase, so my fumbling at the start ensured we'd face his toughest possible version. I'd call him a wake-up-call boss... but we haven't seen THE wake-up-call boss yet. This is only a taste of things to come.

*: Iesus Cristo, what a bloodbath. It's a good thing there's a free Healing Room nearby, because that would have cost us a pretty penny. I decided to use Will o' Wisp's Last Resort when I realized that he wasn't gonna be any help, but not only did I forget that it causes damage to allies as well (and forgot to pay attention to the info bar that outright told me it would), the mini Specters were immune to whatever damage type that was. If I hadn't switched to Shiranui beforehand, which wasted the Specter's actions by nullifying fire damage, I suspect we would have seen our first game over right there. I knew there was a fight coming, but I had no recollection whatsoever of what elements to use or defend against, so I basically got lucky.

I could have reloaded a prior save and done a hell of a lot better, but screw that.

Good thing I'm never coming back here, because I suspect it might very well pull it off.

: ......Alright... It looks like...everything's stabilizing. Hey, Francois, you okay?: I've been better, but I can keep on trucking.: I see... You're getting used to being a demon, aren't ya?: It's... surprisingly simple.: I'll open the door. Hang on.: If you go through the path I opened, you should reach Ginza safely. You did take a slight detour but at least you're there.: Slight detour? You're lucky my team doesn't hear you.: Nice work. Now, let's hurry on.> You hear nothing.

*: We reach the Healing Room without further incident. Whew.

And there's the exit. Or at least I hope it's the exit.

: The wall just went POOF! and disappeared. So, now it's connected to the Ginza terminal, but... I wish you were here to see it happen.

*: As we get closer to the end of the corridor, the Magatsuhi pellets streaming through the floor rise up and rush along towards the exit.